Protective face masks are useful in a number of fields. In the health care field, a face mask may be useful for protecting both the patient and the health care provider from airborne pathogens or for preventing the transfer of pathogens that reside in bodily fluids or other liquids. Wearing protective face masks may also be useful in many industrial settings.
Many protective face masks are constructed to have a front panel that covers the nose and mouth of a user and a securing device (e.g., manual tie straps) that can attach this front panel securely to the head of the user. Often, the front panel and the tie straps are created separately in separate processes and then attached to one another (e.g., using adhesives, staples or other mechanical fasteners). The attachment point between the front panel and the tie strap of a face mask may be broken, for example, by pulling on the tie strap.
Face masks are sometimes provided or packaged in a dispenser. For example, a nested stack of face masks may be provided in a carton or container from which the tie strap may be grasped. The user may grasp the tie strap and pull down, thereby causing the face mask onto which it is attached to be removed from the carton. Subsequently, a new face mask to be dispensed will fall into the place of the previously dispensed face mask, and the tie straps of the next-to-be-dispensed face mask will protrude from the carton. These types of dispensing arrangements suffer from the disadvantage of commonly dispensing more than one face mask when a user pulls on the elastic band or tie straps. Also, such an arrangement may fail to have the next-to-be-dispensed face mask being positioned in the dispensing position upon the removal of a preceding face mask. In this instance, the user must reach into the carton in order to grasp the face mask to be removed. This could cause the face mask to be damaged upon being grasped and pulled by the user. And, as mentioned above, pulling on the tie strap is a common way to break the face mask.
The dispenser packaging format employed with so-called single piece face masks may also be problematic. With this type of face mask, the front panel is formed integrally with side panels that otherwise provide openings that are used to attached the face mask to the wearer. The front panel and the side panels may be die cut from a web of material and may be formed at the same time. Some of these masks are stretchable to achieve a better fit on the face of the wearer. Due to the relatively planar and foldable nature of the single piece face mask, some packaging and dispensing techniques entail forming a stack of face masks in which adjacent ones of the face masks within the stack are interfolded with one another, and packaging the stack in a carton. As an outermost face mask is pulled through an opening in the carton, the next-to-be-dispensed face mask is partially pulled through the opening due to the interfolded relationship and is readily available for subsequent dispensing. While highly viable, this approach may entail a more complex manufacturing methodology in order to form the stack of interfolded face masks. Further, with these and other packaging configurations, the next-to-be-dispensed face mask may not consistently protrude from the carton, leading to possible user confusion.
Because of the problems associated with dispensing face masks, improved design and dispensing of face masks may be desirable.